The present invention relates to a terminal for use in a communication network and comprising a plurality of terminal capability functions to realize a plurality of terminal capability features and coupled thereto a terminal application execution apparatus to interact with one or more of the plurality of terminal capability functions and to execute thereby a terminal application, the terminal application to be executed by such a terminal, a carrier of such a terminal application, a method realized by such a terminal, and a communication network comprising such a terminal.
Such a terminal with terminal capabilities and terminal applications means coupled thereto to interact with the terminal capabilities and to execute thereby a terminal application is especially known in communication networks referred as a Universal Mobile Telecommunication Systems UMTS. For such an UMTS network the concept of Virtual Home environment is defined. A Virtual home environment is defined as a concept for personal service environment portability across network boundaries and between terminals. The concept of the Virtual Home environment is such that users are consistently presented with the same personalized features, User Interface customization and services in whatever network and whatever kind of terminal, wherever the user may be located. The Virtual Home Environment is seen as a key mechanism for convergence of fixed and mobile terminals, for public and private networks and operators and for telecommunication and data communication systems.
A terminal, either fixed terminal or mobile terminal, for use in such a virtual home environment comprises terminal capability means where for here below a non-exhaustive list of examples is provided:
a Wireless Application Protocol WAP client that communicates via a WAP gateway with a WEB server in the Internet or other terminals. WAP specifies an application framework and network protocols for wireless devices such as mobile phones, pagers and personal digital assistants. The network protocols specify a way of transporting data between an Internet Protocol IP network and mobile terminals. The application framework enables the creation of Internet like services; and
a Wireless Telephone Application WTA client that communicates with a WTA server in the network. WTA specifies an application framework that extends the WAP architecture with telephony services. It is a collection of telephony specific extension for call and feature control mechanisms that make advanced Mobile Network Services available to users. In contrast with classical client-server architecture e.g. WAP where the client continuously communicates with the server for the execution of the services actually running on the server, WTA adopts a terminal centric approach. WTA services run in the WTA client on the mobile terminal, which only communicates with the WTA server for maintenance and reconfiguration reasons; and
a Java execution environment such as e.g. a Java card. A JavaCard is a recent evolution in the area of smart-cards with an enhanced architecture that has a Java Card Virtual Machine JCVM on top of its native Operating System OS and allows to develop applications written in Java programming language; and
a User Service Identity Module USIM module that comprises e.g. an authentication algorithm and a ciphering key, a card identification, a user identification, network and service related data and UMTS SIM applications i.e. USIM applications; and
a SIM Application Tool-kit provides mechanisms which allow applications that exist on the USIM to interact and to operate with any part of the mobile equipment of a mobile terminal.
It has to be remarked that according to the virtual home environment definitions a User Service Identity Module that identifies a user can be comprised in as well a fixed terminal as a mobile terminal. Such a USIM card comprises terminal capability means but might as well comprise terminal applications means with a terminal application.
The above mentioned terminal capabilities are realizing terminal capability features whilst being supported by terminal bearers such as e.g. short message service SMS, circuit switched data and Generic Packet Radio Service. It has to be mentioned that a particular manufacturer develops these terminal capability features and terminal bearers. In this way the terminal capability features and terminal bearers are technology dependent according to the choices of a manufacturer.
The known kind of terminals further comprises a terminal application means to interact with one or more of the terminal capabilities in order to execute a terminal application.
A terminal application provides to a user of a terminal a particular service such as e.g. xe2x80x98a call forwarding application according to the user""s preferencesxe2x80x99 or xe2x80x98a voice message applicationxe2x80x99 or xe2x80x98personal banking applicationsxe2x80x99, etc. It has to be remarked that such a terminal application is a hardware module or, more commons, a software module. Such a software module terminal application is information e.g. logic and data that can be stored at production time on e.g. a read only memory of the terminal, but on the other hand, it might as well be downloaded from a service provider in the telecommunication network on e.g. an accessible memory of the terminal during operational use of the terminal. It has to be remarked that such a terminal application is usual designed according to a higher programming language level.
A terminal application means comprises at least part of the data concerning the present application and an application execution environment. In this way the execution environment, under the support of the associated terminal capability means, executes the data of the application e.g. a WAP application means executes a particular WAP application by interacting with the associated WAP client.
It has to be remarked here that since the terminal capability means is technology dependent according to a certain manufacturer, that also the related application is developed towards this technology of this manufacturer. Indeed, in order to be executed by the terminal application means that interacts with the terminal capability means the terminal application must be designed according to the same interfaces. This means that an application signal that is transmitted by the terminal capability means is received and understood by the terminal application means that executes an application being developed according to the same manufacturer preferences as the one used for the terminal capability means, and vice versa.
A problem outstanding with such kind of terminals is that in the event when a third party service provider develops a terminal application for use on a terminal, that the application must be written for different underlying technologies preferred and used by different manufacturers of terminals. Indeed, a terminal application developed according to preferences of a first manufacturer is not able to cooperate via the terminal application means with a terminal capability means being developed according to preferences of a second manufacturer.
Furthermore, two different terminal applications applied on a same terminal are not able to interact with each other when being designed for different kind of terminal capability means.
An object of the invention is to provide a terminal for use in a communication network that executes a terminal application such as the above known terminal but which has not the above mentioned drawback of the requirement of development of different terminal application designs for execution of a this terminal application by interacting with different terminal capability means of possible different manufacturer""s underlying technology.
This is realized by a terminal (T) for use in a communication network, said terminal (T) comprising a plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1, CAP2, CAP3, CAP4) to realize a plurality of terminal capability features and coupled thereto a terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) to interact with one or more of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1, CAP2, CAP3, CAP4) and to execute thereby a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4), wherein the terminal (T) further comprises at least one terminal capability server means (CS) coupled between said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) and to at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), said terminal capability server means (CS) being adapted to translate a first application signal (S1) received from said at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4) into a first predefined application open signal (SO1) and to provide said first predefined application open signal (SO1) to said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) and also being adapted to translate a second predefined application open signal (SO2) received from said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) into a second application signal (S2) and to provide said second application signal (S2) to said at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), said first predefined application open signal (SO1) and said second predefined application open signal (SO2) being independent of an underlying technology of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4).
The invention is further directed to a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) to be executed by a terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) of a terminal (T) as described above, wherein the terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) is adapted to be executed according to received and transmitted open signals (SO1, SO2, . . . ) similar to any one of said first predefined application open signal (SO1) and said second predefined application open signal (SO2) and being independent of an underlying terminal technology of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4).
The invention is further directed to a carrier for a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4), wherein the carrier is adapted to carry a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) as described above.
The invention is still further directed to a method to execute a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) by a terminal (T) comprising the step of realizing a plurality of terminal capability features by a plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1, CAP2, CAP3, CAP4), and interacting by a terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) with at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4), and thereby executing by said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4), wherein the method further comprises the steps of, by at least one terminal capability server means (CS):
translating a first application signal (S1) received from said at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4) into a first predefined application open signal (SO1),
providing said first predefined application open signal (SO1) to said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4), and
translating a second predefined application open signal (SO2) received from said terminal application means (APP1; APP2; APP3; APP4) into a second application signal (S2),
providing said second application signal (S2) to said at least one of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4); and
said first predefined application open signal (SO1) and said second predefined application open signal (SO2) being independent of an underlying technology of said plurality of terminal capability means (CAP1; CAP2; CAP3; CAP4).
Finally, the invention is directed to a communications network comprising at least one of a terminal (T), a terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) and a carrier, all as described above.
Indeed, by comprising in the terminal according to the invention at least one terminal capability server means being coupled between the terminal application means and one or more of the plurality of terminal capability means, the terminal is adapted to translate a first application signal from the terminal capability means into a first predefined application open signal and to provide this first predefined application open signal to the terminal application means and the terminal is further adapted to translate a second predefined application open signal from the terminal application means into a second application signal and to provide this second application signal to the terminal capability means. Furthermore, by defining the first predefined application open signal and the second predefined application open signal independent of an underlying technology of the plurality of terminal capability means, a third party service provider is enabled to write only one terminal application for use on different kind of terminals with different underlying technologies being preferred and used by different kind of manufacturers. Indeed, when the manufacturers of different type of technologies comprise a terminal capability server means in its terminal, that is designed to translate technology dependent application signals into predefined application open signals similar to the first predefined application open signal and to translate predefined application open signals similar to the second predefined application open signal into technology dependent application signals, these manufacturers encourage third party service providers to develop services once that can be deployed on any kind or any type of terminal. These predefined application open signals are defined and agreed between the different manufacturers independent of their own technology specific aspects.
A further advantage of such kind of approach is the fact that one terminal application that is executed by a terminal application means can interact with different terminal capability means being developed with different underlying technologies such as e.g. a particular WAP application that interacts with a WAP client that is developed by one manufacturer and with another kind of terminal capability means such as a WTA client being developed by another manufacturer.
It has to be explained that the carrier described above can be realized by the terminal itself e.g. a memory element at the terminal application means, or by a third party service provider in order to be downloaded by a user or by a physical link between one of the network elements when e.g. being downloaded or just being transported.
A further feature, is that the first predefined open signal and the second predefined open signal are defined in correspondence to information of a predefined network open service architecture interface. This will become more clear in the following paragraph.
Such predefined network open service architecture interface is e.g. described by the third Generation Partnership Project, Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects, Virtual Home environment / Open Service Architecture with reference 3G TS 23.127 version 1.0.0 and available for the public at by 650 Route des Luciolesxe2x80x94Sophia Antipolis, Valbonnexe2x80x94France and via the World Wide Web at http://www.3gpp.org and in October, 1999. This document describes an Open Service Architecture. It is mentioned that the Open Service Architecture OSA defines an architecture that enables operator and third party applications to make use of network functionality through an open standardized interface i.e. the OSA Interface. Open Service Architecture provides the glue between applications and service capabilities provided by the network. In this way applications become independent from the underlying network technology. The applications constitute the top level of the Open Service Architecture OSA. This level is connected to the Service Capability Servers via the Open Service Architecture interface. The Service Capability Servers map the Open Service Architecture interface onto the underlying telecom specific protocols and are therefore hiding the network complexity from the applications.
Applications can be network/server centric applications or terminal centric applications. Terminal centric applications reside in the terminal e.g. a Subscriber Identity Module SIM application toolkit application called shortly SAT application. Network/server centric applications are outside the core network and make use of service capability features offered through the Open Service Architecture. It has to be remarked that applications may belong to the network operator domain although running outside the core network. Outside the core network means that the applications are executed in Applications Servers that are physically separated from the network entities.
A third party service provider is with such an predefined network open service architecture enabled to write once a network application that makes use of network functionality according to an network independent way. Such a network application is e.g. a call conference application on a call conference application server as e.g. described in the above-mentioned document in Chapter 9, Annexxe2x80x94Example of use of OSA (informative). Herein, a user A desires to have a call conference with a user B and a user C. The network application requests the Camel Service Capability Server to set up a call according to the call forwarding preferences of user A. The call conference service settings of user A are known by e.g. interacting via the terminal of user A that comprises terminal capability means which are developed by different manufacturers. In this way, the third party service provider still needs to write different applications towards these different underlying technologies of different terminals. According to the example, the procedure of the call set up is ordered via a WAP communication. This WAP communication can be implemented by a WAP terminal application that interacts with a WAP client on the terminal of user A i.e. a terminal capability means of the terminal that communicates with a WAP server in the network. The WAP terminal application asks for instance via the terminal display to the user the different call conference parties upon which user A enters e.g. the user identification numbers of user B and user C and itself. The WAP terminal application is executed on the WAP terminal application means by interacting with the WAP terminal capability means, which is technology dependent. The present invention brings an improvement to such kind of service network applications which interact also with terminals by comprising the terminal capability server means CS in the terminal to translate the technology dependent application signals into technology independent open application signals. However, by defining the predefined application open signals in correspondence to information of such a predefined network open service architecture interface the flexibility towards the third party service providers is further improved. Indeed, since the network application is provided here by a third service provider, it is preferred that the user A takes contact, not with its home service provider of its home network, but directly with the service provider that the service provides. Therefor the application at the terminal of user A needs to know e.g. the identification information of this third party service provider which is defined according to the predefined network open service architecture. This is realized by a terminal as described above, wherein the first predefined application open signal (SO1) and second predefined application open signal (SO2) are defined in correspondence to a predefined network open service architecture interface information, and wherein the terminal application (app1; app2; app3; app4) comprises data in correspondence to the predefined network open service architecture interface. It has to be remarked that the above mentioned identification information is only cited as an example, and that the information of the present invention, in correspondence to a predefined network open service architecture interface, is not limited to only identification information of a third party service provider.
A final feature of he present invention is the fact that not only the interchanged signals between a terminal application means and a terminal capability means are terminal technology independent or are comprising information in accordance to a predefined network open service architecture interface information. It is also preferable that different terminal capability means are adapted to interact, either directly or indirectly via a terminal capability server means, according to predefined independent application open signals or according to signals comprising information of predefined network open service architecture. It has to be explained that as an example a SIM Application Tool-kit generates commands for the USIM of e.g. a mobile terminal, towards other parts of the mobile equipment. According to the present invention, such a command can comprise an identification reference of a terminal application on a terminal application means or an identification reference of a third party service provider in order to initiate e.g. a short message towards this third party service provider.
It should be noticed that the term xe2x80x98comprisingxe2x80x99, used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to the means listed thereafter. Thus, the scope of the expression xe2x80x98a device comprising A and Bxe2x80x99should not be limited to devices consisting only of components A and B. It means that with respect to the present invention, the only relevant components of the device are A and B.
Similarly, it is to be noted that the term xe2x80x98coupledxe2x80x99, also used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to direct connections only. Thus, the scope of the expression xe2x80x98a device A coupled to a device Bxe2x80x99 should not be limited to devices or systems wherein an output of device A is directly connected to an input of device B. It means that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of B which may be a path including other devices or means.